“Teaching,” says long-time University of Maine (UMM) music instructor Gene Nichols, “is mostly planting seeds and not knowing when or where they might sprout.”

One of Nichols’ seeds was planted in the mind of Jeff Shaw, a UMM alum who graduated in 2000 with a IFA/BA with a music concentration. “Over seventeen years ago, Gene Nichols and I had a conversation in Machias,” says Shaw, now Executive Director of Maine Academy of Modern Music, “and it started all this.”